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Posts Tagged “Sports”

The sheer volume of sponsors doing sports/cause cross-property promotions means the approach is no longer trendy. Rather, it’s become a new classic—the sponsorship equivalent of “Jackie O” sunglasses or leather motorcycle jackets.
I came across an example yesterday that struck me for how textbook the activation seems—and I mean that in a good way. Siemens sponsors both the Great Britain Rowing Team (GB Rowing) and The Stroke Association in the UK. Siemens is activating them both simultaneously, with a cross-property platform called Stroke for Stroke, which challenges the public to row 10K—inside or outside—to raise funds for the cause.
Having looked at the components online and the supporting press, it seems to me that Siemens and its partners are working from a very smart little checklist of how to set these types of promotions up. more

Yet again we’re seeing an unfortunate intersection between sponsorship and politics. In this story reported in the Charleston Daily Mail, the West Virginia Coal Association has indicated that increased environmental regulation may force it to cut back on its sponsorships and charitable spending.
That spending includes sponsorship of the Friends of Coal Bowl—an annual rivalry game between the state’s two biggest college football teams. The association’s seven-year deal runs through 2012. The story quotes WVCA president Bill Raney, saying, “You're taking today and looking at 2012 and we certainly hope we'll be able to do it, but the destiny lies in the hands of the administration in Washington.”
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This past week, Marquette University started posting from a Pepsi-sponsored Twitter account focusing on the home opener for its men’s basketball team.
This development is unique in that very few (successful) forays have been made into the world of sponsored social media.
So far, the only evidence of Pepsi involvement is a Pepsi logo and the text “Pepsi Season Opener” on the Twitter page. There have been no tweets or links posted regarding Pepsi or the sponsorship and the posts have largely focused on information aimed at building excitement around opening night.
If the user’s window is not maximized, the Pepsi logo and blurb receives little visibility, as it is mostly shrouded by text display. more

With the Bank of America Chicago Marathon behind us, sights are set on the next major event on the running calendar: November’s ING New York City Marathon.
Unlike those who are particularly adept runners (my running style has occasionally been compared to that of a Mack truck), I focus not on incredible feats of endurance but feats of sponsorship activation.
One of the best activation examples of the upcoming ING New York City Marathon comes to us courtesy of Toyota.
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Even those who don’t follow sports regularly might have heard about the plight of Caster Semenya, the South African track star whose ambiguous gender created a major controversy at this year’s world championships. In the fallout, Athletics South Africa (ASA) bore much of the blame for its bungling of the matter. So it wasn’t surprising when financial services company Nedbank announced it was terminating its five-year sponsorship of ASA’s road running event series. Though the bank has pointed to the declining quality of the events as the primary reason, the Semenya debacle seems to have played at least some role in accelerating the decision.
The reaction in South Africa has been surprising. I would have expected such news to spawn additional criticism of ASA and its leadership. Instead Julius Malema, leader of the youth wing of the African National Congress, called for a boycott of Nedbank. Malema contends that Nedbank is shirking its responsibility to support the South African community and points to this as an example of—in his view—Nedbank’s history of racist policies and practices.
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It was a sad day in the Kapraun household. With the start of the official NFL season I decided to conduct my own unscientific sponsor research. So, last week, during dinner, I asked my husband if he could name any NFL sponsors. He responded by saying “What’s a sponsor?” I was floored. How could he not know what a sponsor is? I was specifically looking for him to name some NFL league sponsors, but I would have accepted team sponsors as well. In response, I named some NFL league sponsors and he said “oh, yeah”, meaning that when prompted, he knew there was an association between those companies and the NFL.
A few days later I asked him if he could name any NASCAR sponsors and he rattled off at least a handful of sponsors including both series and several team/driver sponsors. At that point, I was feeling like not all hope was lost. However, how did the concept of a sponsor get lost between NASCAR and the NFL? Why would he know what companies sponsor one property and then not even understand what a sponsor is when connected to another property?
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Hyperlocal involvement is a growing trend in the marketing world, and which could be readily applied to sponsorship as well.
Hyperlocal is, as the name suggests, the effort to focus on extremely local markets. For sponsorship, I apply the term micro-sponsorship to encapsulate both local market activity and sponsorship of small properties that may cover more than a single market.
Sponsorship has in essence always been hyperlocal. For years it has bankrolled local fairs, festivals, sporting events and other endeavors. However, for big name companies, these smaller sponsorships have taken the backseat to platforms that can be marketed nationwide. more

I wrote about the resurgence of the auto industry in a recent post, but I’m revisiting the topic because it’s gaining even more momentum.
Two recent examples of new spending:
GM/Buick LaCrosse. GM recently inked new deals with a handful of art, film and culinary events to generate a buzz around the redesigned Buick LaCrosse and the vehicle’s early ’10 launch.
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After reading Jim Andrews’ take on IHOP’s NFL-themed menu last month, I wondered what could incite such a passionate screed against stuffed French toast. And so it was that I found myself walking into an IHOP on a recent Sunday morning for the first time in nearly a decade.
Upon walking in the door, I was greeted by two smiling hostesses wearing NFL team jerseys. When I sat down, I received the regular menu, as well as a special menu featuring the NFL-themed items such as a line of Quarterback Scrambles and the much-maligned AFC and NFC French toast and pancakes. Cheesy? Yes. But it got my attention, which is what these promotions are designed to do.
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As the tennis season winds down, one sponsorship stands out in my mind as particularly interesting.
Video game maker EA Sports partnered with the Olympus U.S. Open Series for the first time to promote its Grand Slam Tennis title.
I find this sponsorship intriguing because despite the game’s subject matter, the tennis crowd is not normally the demographic that game makers covet. However, I took a closer look and some important details came to light that reveal it would be a mistake for tennis properties to scratch gaming completely off their prospective sponsor category list.
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